The last 12 months have shown why Sunderland need to make the most of Jermain Defoe

Jermain Defoe of Sunderland shows off his match ball after scoring a hat-trick during the Barclays Premier League Match between Swansea City and Sunderland (Image: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)

It is an if, but if Sunderland are still a Premier League side this time next year, Jermain Defoe could be one of the most valuable signings of the last 12 months.

It might be a sign of football’s skewed priorities, but keeping a team in the English top-flight is a lucrative business, more valuable than winning the FA Cup or qualifying for the Champions League. Defoe’s goals have done that once for Sunderland, and could be about to do it again.

It is safe to say Lee Congerton will never make it into the Sunderland hall of fame, but the director of football pulled off a brilliant piece of business this time last year.

Premier League wages are so high that getting players who have failed to live up to expectations off the payroll is a tricky, not to mention expensive, business. In January 2015, Congerton not only managed to offload the hapless Jozy Altidore, he got a better player from Toronto FC in return. No wonder they say the North Americans do not understand football.

Twelve months on, the transfer business Sunderland fans ought to have been happiest about came at the other end of the country. Bournemouth’s £17m outlay on Benik Afobe and Lewis Grabban may or may not have strengthened a relegation rival, but it has kept Sunderland’s most valuable commodity on Wearside. Had talk of Defoe returning to the south coast come to pass, the club he left behind would have been hard-pressed to find a willing replacement.

Since this time last year, Defoe and Altidore have both scored 13 league goals for their new clubs. Defoe’s have come in one of the most notoriously demanding leagues in the world. Altidore’s have not.

As far as Dick Advocaat was concerned, the problem with Defoe was he did not do much apart from score goals. Fortunately for Sunderland, Sam Allardyce has realised that is not a problem.

Goalscorers are the gold dust of football. They win you games irrespective of whether you play well. If, like Sunderland, you do not have the talent of most of the team’s in your division, that is an absolute God-send.

There were doubts when Sunderland signed Defoe. Major League Soccer is where football careers usually go to die, not take a rest. When the then-32-year-old returned from Toronto, more than a few people wondered if he still had it. What Defoe has will not easily go away.

There are still doubts. Defoe is yet to play three straight games for Allardyce – less because of his ageing limbs, more because of the failings Advocaat saw as unsurmountable.

When Gustavo Poyet brought his former Tottenham Hotspur team-mate back across the Atlantic, he knew he would have to change his formation to get the best out of him. For Advocaat, 4-3-3 was an article of faith etched in stone – his “Ed Stone”.

Defoe was an unused substitute for the Dutchman’s final three matches as Black Cats coach. Advocaat got plenty of things right on Wearside, but that was not one of them.

Allardyce has tried to find ways of getting the best out of his prize asset. He has not always succeeded, it must be said. Initially he tried three at the back to allow himself the luxury of two up front. It fell down in December when he ran out of fit centre-backs. Billy Jones is many things, but not a top-level central defender. Like Advocaat, Allardyce did not believe his side was good enough to go toe-to-toe with Premier League sides a man light in midfield. The difference was, Allardyce was prepared to do something about it.

Since the switch to four at the back, Allardyce has just had to accept that Defoe as a lone striker is a better bet than sticking him out on the left wing or, worse still, on the bench.

Defoe does not play like a traditional Allardyce centre-forward. At 5ft 6in, if you hoof the ball in his direction and ask him to fight for it, it will only go over his head. So Sunderland have not played that way. Rocket science it ain’t.

There were many things to admire about a pulsating midweek programme in the Premier League – so much for Allardyce’s complaint that the “diabolical” fixture schedule was harming his players – but few more beautiful than the curving, offside-trap-springing run which produced the second goal in Defoe’s hat-trick against Swansea. Alan Shearer was purring over it, and with good reason.

A lot of pretentious rubbish is talked about “philosophies” in 21st Century football, but the only theory that really matters is that if you have game-changers in your line-up, the rest should play to their strengths, not vice-versa.

The challenge for Allardyce this month is to build a squad capable of providing the service which makes the most of Defoe’s talent. Passes like the one Adam Johnson threaded for Defoe to burst off the shoulder of his marker onto are exactly what is called for.

Whether Sunderland do that by playing 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3 or any other formation you care to mention is neither here nor there. The last year has shown how lucky the Black Cats are to have a finisher of Defoe’s class in their ranks. It would be criminal to waste him.